Harold Newton Keene, homeless man with long criminal rap sheet arrested in Austin Central Library shooting that left one person injured.

 

Following Saturday's shooting at the Austin Central Library, which injured one person, Texas officials detained a 55-year-old man with a revolving criminal record.

Harold Newton Austin police apprehended Keene in South Austin around 1.30 p.m., less than an hour and a half after he fled the scene. At the time of the incident, Keene, a known transient at the library, escaped the scene by catching a metro bus before being apprehended. 
Austin Central Library shooting prompts a shelter-in-place notice as public venue is evacuated.


The incident led to mayhem and pandemonium at the public venue and the venue evacuated with authorities saying a single victim was hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The victim suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, FOX7 reported. 

A shelter-in-place alert was lifted shortly after Keene’s apprehension.

It remained unclear what led to gunfire inside the public venue located at 710 W. César Chávez Street.

Stated Austin Mayor Kirk Watson in the immediate aftermath, ‘I’m grateful to our Austin Public Library employees and our first responders for their immediate action to the shooting at our Central Library. Public spaces and city-owned facilities should be a safe place for everyone.’ 

While authorities declined to publicly identify the suspect gunman, Austin Justice, which bills itself as an ‘independent initiative tracing Austin’s rogue criminals, prosecutors, and politicians,’ identified the alleged assailant as 55-year-old local man, Harold Newton Keene.
Suspect had revolving criminal rap sheet and was out on probation for threatening man with gun months earlier

According to a post shared on X, Austin Justice described Keene as a repeat offender with over 25 prior arrests, including for assault, terroristic threats, family violence, evading arrest, drug charges, burglaries.

Prior to Saturday’s shooting, Keene was arrested in April for threatening a man with a gun outside a local day-labor staffing office, where he allegedly aimed a revolver inches from a man’s face.

While incarcerated at the Travis County jail last year, Keene is alleged to have snapped during a chess game — punching another inmate in the face with a confirmed fracture. All of it happened inside a secure county facility. Prosecutors later dismissed the assault, citing that Keene was ‘receiving treatment through felony probation’ — a decision that let him walk free.

Further alleges Austin Justice, ‘Prosecutors encountered the homeless man multiple times over the years after being arrested for violent outbursts over trivial or imagined slights. But they simply gave him probation or dismissed his charges outright.’

Following his arrest, Harold Keene was booked in the Travis County Jail on eight active charges.

His charges include: 3 counts – Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon (F2). 1 count – Manufacture/Delivery of Controlled Substance (4–200g, F1), from a 2023 case for which he received probation. One count – Tampering with Physical Evidence (F3). One count – Terroristic Threat (Class B) — from his April 2025 gun threat on Airport Blvd. Two counts – Probation Revocation Applications tied to prior drug and gun felonies in 2023 for which Keene at the time only received probation

Downtown Austin where the shooting occurred is known for its transient and homeless congregation and burgeoning crisis.